Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapter Five: Punkfac’s End

“I won’t say that you won’t regret it, because you will. But it’s what needs to be done...”

Sterling had grown quite used to the sight of this particular gun barrel over the last two days. Even so, this hadn’t meant she’d learned not to fear it.
The throbbing pain in her ear had suddenly returned, and all she could hear was a harsh ringing as Stitches continued waving the gun in her face.
“Why are you doing this?”
This seemed to catch the Unicorn off guard, it took the pegasus a moment to realise that she’d said it herself, the ringing suddenly stopping.
Stitches scoffed.
“Uhh, i’m a raider? We capture and kill ponies? We sell slaves for caps? You really are fresh from the stable, huh?”
Sterling growled in frustration, forgetting herself for a moment. “No, I mean, why are you still on Bluebear’s side? She killed Busko right in front of you! She literally beat him to death with a mace and made you watch!”
Stitches’ face regained that impassive look from before. Sterling didn’t like it.

“He was an idiot, he failed the leader, and he paid the price.” Stitches intoned.
The other ponies all looked back and forth between the two as they argued, as if watching the ball at a buckball match. Each looked terrified in their own way. Some pleased that Sterling was standing up for them, and others (mainly Nightlight) worried that she was going to have her head blown off if she kept this up.
“You don’t think that way, come on Stitches. I know you cared about him. You tried to hide it from the other ponies-and maybe you did. But you couldn’t hide it from me. And i think Bluebear knows it too. How long do you think it is before you’re the one lying in a puddle of blood at her hooves, huh? Come on, I thought you Unicorns were supposed to be smart.”

Another strike to the nose. This time Nightlight squeaked a protest, duly ignored by the one who’d done the damage. Sterling’s head jerked back again, and she surely would have fallen over if not for the helping hooves that were holding her up. She could feel something warm trickling down from one of her nostrils.
“Don’t you think I’ve realised that?” Hissed the Unicorn, pressing the cold barrel against Sterling’s forehead. “You know nothing about how I think, Pegasus. I know I don’t have long, but if-”
Something smashed down on her from the ceiling, Sterling looked around, surprised that she was already on her hooves. A moment later, the revolver clattered to the ground.
Gordo Griffon had apparently managed to make his way up and into the rafters above the doorway, and had waited for the opportune moment to strike. The others looked wearily at Sterling, who returned the look, then she glanced at Gordo.
The griffon was lying on top of the unconscious Unicorn, a satisfied grin on his face, like a cat returning home to its owner with a rat in its jaws. From the looks of her, she wouldn’t be getting back up for a while.

Sterling held the gun in her jaws as she creeped out of the doorway. She didn’t want to kill anypony, but she could definitely cause the distraction Nightlight would need to get the colts and fillies out.
Rattlehoof was at her side, Gordo followed close behind.
Silently peering around another doorway, the main factory floor came into view.
A few shafts of light punched through the damaged ceiling, illuminating the parts of the factory the fires couldn’t reach.

The raiders were all asleep on the floor-well, almost all of them. That lookout with his rifle was still there, gazing out the window, half-asleep. Gordo growled softly, and Sterling glared at him. It wasn’t time to give themselves up just yet.
They crept further forward. The gun in Sterling’s teeth was a little damp, but it clearly hadn’t been used by somepony without magic for a while. Gordo gestured to her for the gun, his eyes glued to the lookout, but Sterling shook her head. He’s too bloodthirsty, he’s gonna get us all killed.
Creeping just next to the bone throne, Sterling looked back, beckoning for the others to follow. Taking extra care not to jingle around the saddlebags she’d looted off of Stitches’ sleeping form. That’s when her right hoof came down into something squishy.
It was a bucket. A cursory glance at a few hairs sticking out of the mess told her it was a bucket full of Busko. She felt the ringing in her ears again, and hadn’t even noticed that she’d let the gun drop to the floor until it was already too late.

The lookout whipped around at the noise, spotted the prisoners. And brought his rifle up to bear “They’ve escaped! Get ‘em!”
Blinking themselves awake, the raider ponies soon became aware of the problem, and were quick to pull out weapons of their own. Snatching the gun back up in her teeth, Sterling and the others dove behind a wrought-iron machine frame. Bullets pinging off its thick, metal hull.
“Great job, you know, maybe you should have waited ‘til we were closer to the doors before letting them know we were here!” Gordo’s sarcastic comment was almost drowned out by the noise of the gunfire.She dropped the gun again, this time deliberately. “Oh yeah, you’re one to talk! Like you weren’t gonna do that anyway!” she retorted.
“Shut up! Give me that!” Groaned Rattlehoof, who took the gun in his teeth and began to return fire, halting the advancing ponies for a moment.
“Right, Sterling, we’ll distract them, if you can fly over this thing you can get outta here!” Growled the griffon. The pegasus was shocked by his sudden courage, but any pride in him was replaced by that sinking feeling in her stomach. She shook her head.
“No, look, I know that wasn’t part of the plan, and that you probably don’t want to leave us or whatever, but there’s no point in you dying here if-”
“Gordo.”
Sterling shifted her wings weakly and shook her head again, fixing him with a sad smile.
Realisation dawned on his feathered features. “Oh you… Sterling…” He groaned, leaning back. “How could you let us all think you could fly?”
“Look, I don’t care who can or can’t fly.” Growled the ghoul-pony, mouthing over the grip of the gun and taking a bullet to the shoulder that caused him to wince. “All I care about right now is more ammo. Cough it up.” Sterling emptied one of the saddlebags onto the floor. Fried rat, no. Collection of small stones, no. Hoof grenade, no. Ah, there it was, ammo for a-

She glanced at Gordo, who shot a look back at her, and dived for the grenade before she could snatch it away from him. “No, I don’t want to kill-”
“It’s them or us!” He shouted, deftly pulling out the pin and tossing it back over the machine frame.
The explosion was immense. One of the loudest sounds Sterling had ever heard. One of the raider ponies had yelled “grenade!” but by then it had been too late. It wasn’t so much the grenade’s explosion, but what the explosion caused.
Magically sealed containers of various chemicals and combustible items were caught in the explosion, and the ceiling in the middle of the factory floor caved in. The bone throne was shredded to pieces, flying around the room in a hail of shrapnel. Sterling could hear the screams as ponies were impaled, or set alight, or both.
Not only were there parts of the dead, but parts of living ponies were scattered about in the blast, and Sterling almost puked when she saw a fresh jaw land next to her.
There was no denying it. Punkfac was ablaze.
They had to move, there was too much smoke, and they were likely to be burned alive if they stayed put. Something all three of them simultaneously agreed on.
“Gordo!” Yelled the pegasus as they sprinted to the exit doors. That Luna-damned lookout was still there, taking pot shots at them despite everything. A few more shots from Rattlehoof dropped him, right as the ghoul fired his last bullet, and they burst through the exit doors, into the sunlight and out of the choking inferno.

Sterling breathed the fresh air deeply. It wasn’t smoke, and it wasn’t a mouldy, old bathroom. She was outside again! She sank to her haunches, taking in the scene.
The factory was burning down rapidly, the face of the filly on the front had finally caught, and it glared accusingly at Sterling as it went up. ‘Sorry’ she mouthed.
Then there was a horrible sound.
Smoking, coughing as she left, Bluebear burst through the factory doors. It took her a moment of coughing to clear her lungs, and that’s when she caught sight of them.
“You.” She hissed. Her calming demeanor now gone, replaced with a blind rage. “You destroyed the Punkfac! You killed my ponies!”
The irony of the leader being upset that somepony had killed her own was not lost on the pegasus, and she was about to turn and run, when Rattlehoof dropped the empty revolver.

“Celestia damn you and all your raider kind!” Rasped the old stallion, and he broke into a gallop, sprinting towards the mare, right as she readied her mace to strike.
“Rattlehoof! Don’t!” Yelled Sterling, but before she could react, Rattlehoof leapt at the Earth Pony..
He was quite spry, for an older stallion.
The mace struck one of his outstretched hooves, but that didn’t stop him. The two of them crashed back through the doors, back into the blazing inferno of the Punkfac. Sterling started to run forward, but Gordo stopped her with a talon to her chest. He shook his head, right as the roof of the building collapsed in on itself.
Sterling sat back down, dazed. Thoughts were swirling around in her head. “Why did he-why?” Was all she could stutter out. Gordo sat down next to her, the griffon wrapping his unbroken wing around her smaller form. “He’s lived a long life. And I'm sure you could understand that a life lived that long doesn’t come without its fair share of mistakes.”
The griffon paused.
“If it's any consolation, I think he wanted to go out that way.”
“Burning himself alive?” Sterling whimpered, tears beginning to stream down her face.
“Saving the ones he cared about.” The griffon sighed. “No matter the cost.”

Walking around to the back of the building, Sterling and Gordo spotted the open exit route, and a small gap in the bushes a few metres away. She smiled, wiping her tears away with a hoof. “At least they made it out.” Her expression fell as she realised that she’d just smeared more of Busko on to her face.
“I’m surprised we did, to be honest.” Replied the griffon, moving towards the gap between two bushes.
He paused at the edge of the clearing, the glowing of the burning building catching in his eyes.
“Well? You coming? We’ve gotta find those kids, and Nightlight.”
Sterling blinked out of her stupor. She kept zoning out. That wasn’t something she could afford to do in a world like this. “O-of course.”
She trotted up to him, in a daze. “If we get to a town, do me a favour and clean yourself up a little before you terrify the residents?” Gordo chuckled.
“Yeah.” Replied Sterling, absently. She had no idea how he could be cracking jokes at a time like this.

The pair of them walked in silence for some time, until they got to the road. “Where do you think they-”
That’s when she saw a flash of light. The pegasus dived for cover. A moment later, an audible ‘CRACK!’ rang out. Almost immediately, the pegasus felt something wet drip onto her hoof. Was she bleeding again?
Opening her eyes, there was no blood. Instead, it was a droplet of water.
Sterling had never seen rain before. She knew about it, of course. Although they never really covered it in class, she’d had a vested interest in it (being a pegasus who were supposed to have been able to control things like rain) and had taken to her own research in the stable’s library.
The two of them galloped to a nearby bus stop, taking shelter next to the skeletons of a pony and her long-dead foal in a pram. Sterling tried to avoid looking at them as much as possible.
“You need to step up.”
It took her a moment to realise that she was being talked to. It was Gordo, of course. And he did not look impressed. He looked like he’d been thinking about what he was going to say quite carefully.
“I…what?”
“You need to step. Up.” He growled again, poking a talon at the pegasus’ chest. “I don’t know how, or why, but those ponies in there trusted you, and believed in you. Rattlehoof believed in you, so did Nightlight, so did I.”
“Why are you saying this?” Cried the mare in dismay. “Haven’t we had enough for one-”
“No!” He snapped, wincing as his wings spread. “We thought you could fly! But you can’t!”
“I never said I-”
“You never said you couldn’t!” The griffon narrowed his eyes. “Omitting the truth is still lying, Sterling. And that’s not even the worst part. You couldn’t even kill a raider pony. You tried to stop me from throwing that grenade and saving our asses, and you wouldn’t even shoot them when you had the gun!”
Now it was her turn to get angry. “So what? I’m sorry that I didn’t want to kill somepony, no matter how awful they were! I’m not used to this place, I'm not like them, and I'm not like you.”

“I am not like them!” Shouted the griffon. A fork of lightning illuminated his eyes as he bore over her. She shrank down like a frightened filly. She didn’t need much to remember that the muscular griffon could easily tear her to shreds with those talons of his. He saw the terror in her eyes, and sighed, letting go of his rage.
“We’ve all done things we regret to survive out here.” Murmured the griffon, remembering himself and sitting back down. “It’s the way of the wasteland. And if you want to live, you’re gonna have to learn it.”
He looked away, clearly remembering something he wished he could forget.
There was a silence between them, broken up only by the ‘pitter-patter’ of the rain falling onto the tin-roof of their makeshift shelter.
“It’s why Rattlehoof threw himself into those flames. Maybe he saw it as a way to redeem himself.”
What the ghoul could possibly have done to immolate himself alive wasn’t something Sterling wished to muse upon.
“O-okay.” She said quietly. “I don’t want to, but if we’re going after Nightlight and those foals, I should probably start…” She didn’t want to say it, but Gordo smiled at her sadly.
“Atta girl.” He said, ruffling her mane.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Cherchez La Filly – +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.